NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

The past week has been mostly a case of beating the bounds of the '3km from home' circle. It has had its moments, with a Woodlark that circled the western-most fields at Canons Farm for a couple of minutes (on Monday) and an oh-so brief first-winter Mediterranean Gull on the football pitches at Priest Hill (today). In between these bursts of action it has been largely quiet, with Linnets (above) and Skylarks still present in fair numbers in the general area, plus signs of the early-Spring Stonechat passage getting underway, with five at Priest Hill this morning (where I spent some time unsuccessfully searching for a Dartford Warbler).

We inland birders, especially those that toil on dry sites, get very excited about a bit of water. Not for us the wide expanse of an estuary, or the horizon-filling sea, and not even an ugly grey reservoir - no, we deal in small streams, village ponds and... ...sheets of rain water! Believe it or not, I started to salivate when I saw how much water had collected on the aptly named Bog Field at Canons Farm. When this field gets extra wet, it has history, with at least two Green Sandpipers having been falsely lured in. My frantic scanning for diving duck, phalaropes and waders produced... a bathing Carrion Crow. Well, the excitement lasted all of 30 seconds. A quiet afternoon followed, save for the wintering finch flock, that seem to be keeping to Tart's, Ballard's and Bog Fields. Chaffinch numbers are keeping at a steady 150-200, but the Linnet flock is slowly building. On arrival I counted 275, but a couple of hours later this had increased to 400. I took a brief video...

My last visit to Canons Farm was a slow affair, with few flocks of birds and the fields eerily quiet - well today things had picked up a bit. It wasn't exactly heaving, but a gathering of thrushes along the border of Broadfield and Poultry Field comprised 235 Redwing and 60 Fieldfare. The winter wheat in this area has grown above thrush height, so there were most probably many more hidden from view. Another welcome gathering was 100+ Linnet (below) that sat in tree tops and sang amongst themselves, in a rather distracted and absent-minded way. The sound carried some distance, and together with several displaying Skylarks (and a singing Little Owl) gave the whole morning more than a touch of spring. Other highlights included 2 Common Buzzard, a Kestrel (top), 5 Rooks and a single Yellowhammer. The countdown has definitely started - the 'downland' passage of Stonechats is now due, Common Buzzards and Red Kites are soon to be expected and it is touching distance b...

The Scotney Rough-legged Buzzard gave itself up without a fight this morning, and proceeded to hover and hunt in front of us for over half an hour. It even decided to visit both East Sussex and Kent - this is a species that I had not seen in the area before. After a fortifying cup of coffee at the Plodland Bistro, I walked back to the observatory via Dengemarsh Gully and the beach. This isn't everyone's idea of a good walk, but for me it combines 'big skies' and solitude, plus decent birding. This afternoon, as the light was fading, a Merlin put on a great show as it hunted down a Linnet that had become disconnected from its flock. The finch tried all it could to shake the raptor off, both birds stalling, rolling and catapulting in a frenzy of the hunter and the hunted. What finished it for the Linnet was the sudden appearance of a second Merlin. Without ceremony and with none of the effort of the chase so far, it effortlessly plucked the bird out of the air. All wa...

On 2 January 2013, I went to check on the wintering Firecrest(s) on Banstead Downs. As I reached the footpath where they can usually be found, the binocular strap around my neck went suddenly limp and I was lucky to catch my binoculars before they fell to the floor - the strap had worked free. After re-threading the strap I continued with my birding, seeing a Firecrest soon afterwards. It was not until the evening that I realised that my Swarovski binocular eye-pieces guard was missing - it must have fallen off when the strap had worked lose. It was not for several weeks that I returned to the same area, so I was not surprised to not find the missing guard. Yesterday (2 January) a year to the day since the incident described in the paragraph above, I returned to check on the wintering Firecrests once more. When I got to the footpath (the same spot that my strap had worked lose 12 months previously) I took my binoculars from my rucksack and close-focussed them on a nearby bush in r...